City plan mirrors foundation efforts

By C. Grant Jackson

Senior Vice President/Community Development

Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce

Recommendations in the city of Columbia’s new “Strategic Plan for the Office of Economic Development” leverage and build on the work of the Navigating from Good to Great Foundation.

The city plan was developed by Mark Williams and his team at Strategic Development Group, professional site locations consultants who are located in Columbia. Williams, a former project manager for the S.C. Department of Commerce, has worked on many high profile economic development projects in South Carolina and around the nation.

Columbia City Council heard a summary of the SDG plan in mid-April and Williams is in the process of delivering the final plan along with a companion report comparing Columbia to a group of nine Southeastern peer cities.

By way of full disclosure, because of the city’s relationship with Navigating from Good to Great we were asked to assist with portions of the report, specifically a study of how the city could become a better partner with the commercial real estate community.

While the final report will be delivered soon, two recommendations line up squarely with the on-going efforts of the Navigating from Good to Great Foundation: putting some emphasis on expanding existing businesses and making the city more business friendly.

Under “Economic Development Goals,’ the SDG team calls for the “facilitation of the expansion of existing businesses, creating and retaining 500 full-time/equivalent jobs.” SDG also notes that one of the key functions of the office of economic development should be to “expand existing companies.”

In 2008, the city and the Navigating from Good to Great Foundation partnered to launch Business in Motion, the city’s existing business retention and expansion, or BR&E, program. Ryan Coleman, who works for the city’s Office of Economic Development, and John Mikula, the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce’s senior vice president for existing business retention and expansion, have conducted more than 300 interviews with area businesses.

The short-term objectives of Business in Motion include helping businesses address urgent concerns and issues and retaining businesses and jobs that might be at risk of closing. Long term the objective is to increase job creation and new business development. That is exactly what SDG is recommending.

In the course of doing those interviews, the Business in Motion program also validated the perception of an unfriendly business attitude in the city of Columbia, largely because of the issue of dealing with and obtaining business services such as licensing, permitting and inspections. That report also was, in part, the genesis of the Business Services or Business Friendly Task Force that looked at what it would take “to transform Richland County and the city of Columbia into places where business indeed feels that it has been invited and where it feels appreciated.”

The task force delivered its report late last year to both the city and county and is now involved with the Navigating from Good to Great Foundation in an effort to get the recommendations implemented. Among those recommendations is the establishment of an ombudsman who would be a single point of contact for business services for the public.

One of 12 initiatives recommended by the SDG report is “install an ombudsman to assist new businesses with permitting and zoning issues and existing businesses in dealing with issues relating to the city.” The report even borrows language from the task force: “The ombudsman must have the ability and authority to influence the review and approval process. The objective is not to overrule codes or ordinances, but to improve the timeliness of the approval process and improve the customer experience.”

The SDG report recommends several ways to improve the city’s business environment:

Evaluate all existing regulations affecting businesses to ensure that they provide a minimum burden on businesses while maintaining adequate safety, environmental and other critical standards.

Evaluate all department heads based not only on their performance in applying necessary elements of regulation, enforcement and services, but also their performance in a) interacting seamlessly with other city departments to provide a business start-up and expansion environment that requires the least possible time and resources from businesses, and b) developing continuous improvement of all systems and programs that further enhance the efficiency of interactions with business and generate improved approaches to “customer service.”

Enlist the services of an expert familiar with best practices related to business friendly interactions to implement systems and electronic communication.

All measures were at least touched on by the Business Friendly Task Force.

Implementation of the task force’s recommendations would take the city a long way toward implementing much of what is in SDG’s strategic plan for economic development for the city.

C. Grant Jackson is senior vice president/community development for the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at (803) 733-2513 or at gjackson@columbiachamber.com.

Guest Blog | CMA Executive Director Karen Brosius

Every day I can hear joy in the voices of people enjoying Boyd Plaza, every Saturday there are people buying fresh foods and crafts at the Soda City Market, and now the CMA’s new façade is alive through the installation of six large-scale banners that are eye-catching and colorful – a new beacon for visitors that are highly visible during the day and well lit at night. We have not seen such vibrant activity on Main Street in decades. This is truly a new Main Street.

We know that the arts are good for the vibrancy of our City and contribute to the quality of life of our citizens, but we also know – and show – that the arts are good for business.

Based on a 2008 economic impact study, the CMA generated $23 million in economic activity and attendance is steadily on the rise.

Over the last five years, our operating budget has averaged $3.7 million, providing greater economic investment in our community. This allows us to offer over 800 tours, lectures, concerts, school and family programs, art classes, films and fun events every year. Each year, we enjoy attendance from all 46 counties in South Carolina, plus international visitors from around the world, making us a true cultural destination.  Since 2008, we have seen our tourism visitation significantly rise. We have gone from 40% of our audience coming from outside the city and county to an annual average of 55%, even during a down economy.

What a thrill the last few years have been for Main Street. We are proud of our growth and accomplishments to date, including recognition in national media, and we are striving to be limitless and carry on that forward momentum. In our current planning, and building on our high weekend and evening visitation, we are now focusing on the weekdays as our newest opportunity to shine. From an economic angle, we are seeking growth in adult group tours from around the state, developing new programs designed for the many retirees who are an ever-growing part of our community, and hosting lunchtime programs for those working downtown. Our economic impact growth continues with much excitement from our members, our community and from cultural tourists.

One of my favorite ways to think about museums is said well by philosopher Goethe: A Museum should never be finished, but boundless and ever in motion. And that we are.

Connecting students to jobs key to growth

By C. Grant Jackson

Senior Vice President/Community Development

Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce

We’re growing talent in Famously Hot Columbia and a lot of that talent would like to make our region home. But for that talent to remain here, we need to connect it to jobs. When the Graduation Imperative surveyed the region’s colleges and universities on why more students don’t graduate, the No. 1 answer was money. Many students struggle to meet the cost of college today and others say they just see their parents or themselves spending all that money with little prospect of a return by way of getting a good job.

The Graduation Imperative – a collaborative effort of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce/Navigating from Good to Great Foundation, the Central Carolina Community Foundation, Columbia Opportunity Resource (COR) and the S.C. Higher Education Foundation – is working to improve college degree attainment rates in the Columbia region. And, to keep more of that talent here.

COR is doing a great job of helping Columbia build that sense of place that, as Mayor Steve Benjamin said, is so important for people “in deciding where they will live and bring their time, talents and treasures.” COR is fulfilling its mission of connecting “young, talented professionals in the greater Columbia area to diverse and meaningful networks for leadership, service and fun.”

But a recent Gallup/Lumina Foundation poll also points out that 67% of Americans believe that attaining a college degree is very important to getting a good job. In other words as Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education put it: “Give me a good job, not just a degree.”

And education does pay. In 2012, the unemployment rate for individuals with a bachelor’s degree was 4.5% with a median weekly wage of $1,066. For an associate’s degree the unemployment rate was 6.2% and the weekly wage was $785. The unemployment rates were even smaller  – and wages higher  – for people with master’s and doctor’s degrees. Contrast those numbers with only a high school diploma, unemployment of 8.3% and a wage of $652, and less than a high school diploma, 12.4% unemployment and a wage of $471. The figures are from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In some ways, “the college degree is becoming the new high school diploma: the minimum requirement, albeit an expensive one, for getting even the lowest-level job,” wrote Catherine Rampell in a story in the New York Times last month.

“Across industries and geographic areas, many other jobs that didn’t used to require a diploma – positions like dental hygienists, cargo agents, clerks and claims adjusters – are increasingly requiring one, according to Burning Glass, a company that analyzes job ads from more than 20,000 on-line sources,” Rampell said.

The task to fill the jobs is two-fold.  One, colleges must do a better job of preparing graduates for jobs – more graduates with more marketable degrees. Two, we need to do a better job of connecting students coming out of colleges and universities with available jobs in our region so that more of the talent will stay here.

To help better connect college graduates and the local job market, the Graduation Imperative and its eight education partners will stage the first Famously Hot Career & Talent Expo on April 11, at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center.

In partnership with Allen University, Benedict College, Columbia College, Columbia International University, Midlands Technical College, Newberry College, South University and the University of South Carolina, the Graduation Imperative is offering employers the chance to connect with students and alumni of all eight schools on a single day in a single venue. One day, one venue, eight schools.

The expo is for all employers – private, non-profit or government – who have full-time or part-time jobs or are interested in hiring an intern. We also encourage employers to offer job shadowing opportunities. If an employer is considering expanding and adding staff but not ready to hire, the expo is an opportunity to connect with eight potential sources of talent.

To register, employers should go to famouslyhotcareerexpo.eventbrite.com. Employers who are members of any Chamber of Commerce in the Columbia region will pay a reduced registration fee.

Students as well as recent graduates and alumni of the partner schools are encouraged to explore possible careers. They should contact their school’s career services office to register. Several employers including SCANA, Verizon Wireless and Richland County have signed up. Sponsors include Spherion Staffing Services and Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

More information about the Graduation Imperative as well as links to other relevant information can be found at http://www.graduationimperative.org.

C. Grant Jackson is senior vice president/community development for the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at (803) 733-2513 or at gjackson@columbiachamber.com.

One Book, One Columbia

Thursday night, Mayor Steve Benjamin welcomed book lovers to Richland Library for a community discussion of A.J. Mayhew’s novel, The Dry Grass of August.

Mayhew’s book is this year’s selection for the mayor’s One Book, One Columbia program, which encourages everyone in the city to share the enjoyment of reading together.

The novel is a coming-of-age story set in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida during the summer of 1954, as the South was in the throes of initial reaction to the Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme Court decision that eventually led to school integration. The protagonist is a 13-year-old girl from Charlotte traveling on vacation with her white, middle-class family and their black maid, Mary. Through events ranging from the touching to the deeply tragic, the narrator learns a lot about race, character, herself, her family and society at large, lessons of universal relevance to all readers in this part of the country, whether they’re old enough to remember that summer or not.

The discussion at the library Thursday night was lively and frank, with participants sharing personal perspectives and experience on race, history, domestic violence, family, courage and cowardice, and how they all have shaped the world in which we live. The panel was moderated by Brad Warthen, director of communications/public relations at ADCO. He was joined by R. Blakeslee Gilpin, assistant professor of history at the University of South Carolina; Valerie Rowe Jackson, deputy director of Richland Library; and  Clo Cammarata, programs and partnerships manager at the library.

The audience thoroughly engaged with the panel, both vocally and through use of an instant polling device that allowed everyone in the room to answer multiple-choice questions bearing on the themes of the book, which in turn sparked additional threads of conversation.

Columbia isn’t finished discussing this book. The author herself will talk about what it takes to start a successful writing group, from 2-4 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 27 in Bostick Auditorium at Richland Library. Also at the main library, Ms. Mayhew will lead a discussion of her novel from 6:30-8 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 28.

Guest blog by:
Brad Warthen
Director of Communications/Public Relations
ADCO

ULI is opportunity for Columbia

By C. Grant Jackson

Senior Vice President/Community Development

Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce

When an Urban Land Institute Advisory Services Panel comes to town in February, Columbia will have a chance to hear from, and take advantage of, some of the best land use talent in the country.

ULI was established in 1936 and has more than 30,000 members from more than 95 countries. The collaborative body includes developers, builders, architects, planners, public officials, community leaders, academics and a whole range of other types of individuals. ULI is a non-profit research and education organization with a mission of “providing leadership in the responsible use of land and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide.”

ULI South Carolina, formed in 2005, was the first statewide district council ever formed and has become a national model. The District Council has about 500 members, while the Midlands boasts about 90. Midlands members include Terry Brown and Jodie McLean, the CEO and president of EDENS respectively; Alan Kahn, one of Columbia’s premier developers; Leighton Lord, chairman of the board of Nexsen Pruet; Todd Avant, CEO of NAI Avant; Deepal Eliatamby, president of Alliance Consulting.

Public members include Fred Delk, Jim Gambrell and Krista Hampton from the city of Columbia, Tracy Hegler from Richland County, along with Richland County Council member Jim Manning. Lexington Mayor Randy Halfacre is a member of the current ULI South Carolina Center for Sustainable Leadership Class. By way of disclosure, I’m a member of the Class of 2008-2009 and serve on the Midlands executive committee.

The panel being brought to Columbia on Feb. 11-14 by local organizations is a follow-up to the ULI Technical Advisory Panel, or TAP, that convened in the fall of 2011 to look at issues of connectivity, largely between Main Street and the Vista across Assembly Street.

The $60,000 cost of the 3-day Advisory Services Panel is being born by:

• City Center Partnership
• Columbia Development Corp.
• University of South Carolina
• Vista Guild
• Five Points Association
• Historic Columbia Foundation
• Thompson and Co.
• Ben Arnold Co.

A third of the cost, $20,000, is coming from the National ULI Foundation, and is apparently the largest such grant ever awarded by the foundation for a three-day Advisory Services Panel.

The community partners are crafting the project assignment, but largely asking the panel to look at:

• How do we create a plan and community vision for connectivity, to identify best ways to tie the separate urban areas of the city together?
• How should we prioritize enhancements including long-term and short-term projects and easily accomplished projects?
• How do we fund projects?
• And most importantly, how do we move from plans to action?

The Advisory Services Panel will look at connectivity across a broader city center area, including Main Street, the Vista, Five Points, the Historic House and Museum districts, the Bull Street campus, USC, and  Innovista – including the waterfront district.

The panel will consider previous studies of the area, do site visits and interview stakeholders as well as hold an open public meeting, before issuing a report at a wrap-up meeting. The objective is not to develop any kind of master plan, but more so to lay out recommendations and a potential path forward for the community.

It will then be up to the community to move forward. Panel members themselves are prohibited from soliciting and performing work in the area covered by the panel’s work.

Numerous communities have leveraged ULI panels to help find creative, practical solutions to some of their most challenging issues.

The Columbia panel will be chaired by Alex Rose, senior vice president, Continental Development Corp., El Segundo Calif.

Rose has chaired and served on numerous national ULI Advisory Service Panels focusing on downtown and transit corridor redevelopment and revitalization and office development issues.

One of the most distinguished panel members will be Tom Murphy, ULI Senior Resident Fellow, ULI/Klingbeil Family Chair for Urban Development. Murphy served three terms as the mayor of Pittsburgh.

Tom Eitler, vice president for advisory services for the national ULI, will serve as staff. Other panel members include:

Dan Conway, president and director of marketing and economics, THK Associates Inc., Aurora, Colo.; Richard Dishnica, president, The Dishnica Co., Point Richmond, Calif.; Stephen Engblom, senior vice president, AECOM, San Francisco; and Calvin Gladney, managing partner, Mosaic, Washington, D.C.

Two members of the Technical Advisory Panel will be returning: Amy Barrett, vice president, Permar Inc., and John Knott, president and co-founder, the Noisette Co., both in Charleston.

Knott chaired the TAP last fall and urged both the Columbia partners and the National ULI to consider an Advisory Services Panel as the next step. Among recommendations from the TAP were:

Taking measures to reduce vehicle traffic and speed on Assembly Street, including widening and improving the median to make crossing the street safer; creating a civic icon at Gervais and Assembly streets, an intersection that was referred to as the “100% corner of the state;” and optimizing parking solutions downtown, including eliminating surface parking on prime pieces of property.

The TAP report is available at http://www.ctcbrownfields.com/columbia/ColumbiaTAPReportFinal.pdf.

C. Grant Jackson is senior vice president/community development for the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at 803 733-2513 or at gjackson@columbiachamber.com.

We Can Be # 1

Guest blog by
Darrell Scott
Vice President of Public Policy and Communications
South Carolina Chamber of Commerce

While I am a big fan of a good, clean but hard fought campaign season, I am just as eager to look at it in the rearview mirror when it’s finally over. I did enjoy short two and three day stints in a couple of battleground states like Virginia and Nevada. There, I got to see firsthand what the citizens of those states endured as early as July and August with an onslaught of commercials. Now, it’s kind of refreshing to see Bill Green back on television!

With the dust settled here in the Midlands, we are fortunate to have strong leaders like Senate President Pro Tempore John Courson and new Senate Minority Leader Nikki Setzler both returning to the State House in January. These are two statesmen that keep the best interest of South Carolinians as their first priority and are always looking for new ways to spur economic growth in the Palmetto State.

Now, we turn our attention to governing and working on issues important to moving South Carolina forward and increasing wealth and prosperity for everyone. I’m reminded of Governor Haley’s comments at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting in November when the governor said, “I want South Carolina to have the No. 1 business climate in the country.” The South Carolina Chamber has the same goal. We compete every day with states like Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia for new jobs and capital investment.

The Chamber has identified two key areas the Palmetto State must take immediate action on if we are going to be No. 1.  We must invest in our roads and bridges, and we must transform education, beginning with a focused plan on early childhood education.

We can all quote various statistics about the poor condition of our state’s infrastructure. This is not a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats alike agree that South Carolina needs a comprehensive strategy. It’s unfortunate that local governments have to step up to the plate to fund infrastructure, while state leaders have continued to sit on the sidelines. Right here in the Midlands, a Democratic stronghold in the state, citizens recently passed the penny for progress tax. Likewise, GOP strongholds like York, Dorchester and Horry Counties have also passed a penny tax for infrastructure.

Increased focus on funding infrastructure has driven economic opportunity. While the private sector can lead in many ways, it cannot be responsible for making decisions to build and maintain roads. This is a core function of government. The South Carolina Chamber and allied organizations are advocating for a focused, statewide strategy to invest $6 billion in infrastructure over 10 years by prioritizing state resources. If successful, this effort will create more than 170,000 jobs.

The General Assembly has been proactive in dedicating nearly $500 million for a port access road and the harbor deepening project. With this dedicated funding, the Navy Base terminal expansion and the Panama Canal expansion, the port is expected to double container volume over the next decade. That’s hundreds of thousands of additional trucks on Interstate 26 and other state roadways. The state must also dedicate additional resources to roads and bridges quickly so that we are prepared to handle the increased activity.

Furthermore, we have to be proactive in the education of our children. Businesses are the largest consumers of our state’s educational system. As such, businesses need to make sure the final product is suitable for students to enter a competitive and global workforce. Currently, nearly 30% of our students are not graduating from high school.

Although a lot is being done well in public education, business leaders are uniting in an effort to transform education. That’s right, transform, not reform. In order to transform education, the Chamber believes the state must focus on early childhood education, specifically on school readiness and 3^rd grade reading proficiency. The statistics in these two key areas are indicative of whether a child is likely to graduate from high school nearly a decade later.

Today, students learn differently that even I did in elementary school. My three-year-old is able to operate an iPad, which allows her to begin to read on her own. It is imperative that we engage students through the educational system in a style that they can relate to and in an environment where they can learn.

The state is poised to spend $200 million on new textbooks over the next four years. While we should not completely eliminate hardbacks from the classroom, we must be strategic in how we deliver instruction to students today. We must continue to use technology in the classroom and provide teachers with the ability to assess their students in real time so that they can effectively teach the core concepts that students may be struggling with. In the time I have spent writing this blog, I’m sure my iPhone and the apps I regularly use have many updates waiting on me. It’s the world we live in.

Infrastructure and early childhood education are the critical areas that are holding South Carolina back from leading the nation in job and wealth creation. We must invest in the physical needs of our roads and bridges, but also the intellectual needs of our children.

Together, we can be #1!

To learn more about the business community’s 2013 Competitiveness Agenda click here.

Darrell Scott is vice president of public policy and communications at the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. Contact him at darrell.scott@scchamber.net or 803-255-2639. Follow him and the SC Chamber at @SCChamber @DarrellTScott.

The Penny Vote: A closer look at what a YES vote means…

Dear Chamber Members,

We are writing today to talk about an issue that is very important to the Greater Columbia Community – the upcoming vote on the “Special Sales and Use Tax”, more commonly referred to as the Transportation Penny. Since 2010, it has been our privilege to work with fellow citizens, business leaders and elected officials to develop a comprehensive transportation plan that will provide funding to address the growing concerns facing our transportation infrastructure and improve our community by providing more jobs, safer roads and local control.

The Transportation Penny, if approved by the voters on November 6th, will allow us to generate $1 billion over the next 22 years. The good news is that 42% of the funds will be generated from visitors who are non-residents that work, play and shop in Richland County.

Taking a closer look at what a “YES” vote for the Penny represents for the citizens of Richland County, the plan will provide:

1. MORE JOBS – Over 16,000 short-term and long-term LOCAL jobs and billions in new investments. The long-term funding to maintain and improve our bus system will allow thousands of people in Richland County, including Fort Jackson, to get to work, get groceries and go to the doctor.
2. SAFER ROADS – Richland County has second most dangerous roads in the state. Pedestrian improvements would help significantly; wider roads are safer roads. Improvements to our bus system will help free up our roadways.
3. LOCAL CONTROL – Local leaders created the plan, local voters will approve the plan, local citizens will oversee the plan and local families will benefit from the plan.

While we may not all agree on every aspect of the plan, we can all agree that there is no doubt that this plan moves our community forward, puts us in a more competitive position and ensures a better future. Just the economics of the plan alone will bring great benefits to the county.

Harry Miley, Miley & Associates, conducted an independent economic impact of the proposed Richland County Transportation Plan and in addition to the above referenced benefits, he projects an estimated $28 million dollars a year in new property taxes within the first 10 years. Also, it is estimated that the average household will spend less than $100 more a year to support the plan and benefit from road enhancements which will reduce vehicle operating costs by an estimated $281 a year.

Our county officials, our city officials, our business community, our religious communities have all come together to say this is what we need to move us forward.

Imagine a NO vote – It would mean the STATUS QUO – It would be a major setback to the great progress that we have made in this community and the likely loss of our bus system. Image being the only capital city in America without a viable bus system – an bleak picture where employees cannot arrive at work to provide services at our local hospitals, hotels, restaurants and numerous places of business where we all frequent daily.

A NO vote will cost us more in the long run – The cost of deteriorating roads and increased fees will end up costing our families nearly twice as much as our Penny investment.

A NO vote will be a MAJOR LOSS – We don’t want to lose a chance to make our roads safer. We don’t want to lose our vital bus system. And we don’t want to lose control of this issue to the federal government.

We encourage you to review the Transportation Penny components and imagine the benefits of an improved roadway and bus system, improved roads, bike/pedestrian/greenways and new areas for economic development as a result of new roads along Shop Road and by the riverfront.

We also ask that you share information with your employees and ask them to review this critical issue and be prepared to vote “YES” to the last two questions on the November 6th ballot – the first question approves the “Special Sales and Use Tax” and the second question approves the funding for bonds. Please support this critical issue and help us move forward to provide more jobs, safer roads, and more local control.

Additional information is available on line at greatermidlands.org and Richland County online.

Imagine what this one penny can do to improve your life, your family’s lives and future generations. A “YES” vote for the penny ensures a better standard of living for all of us – WE ALL BENEFIT. Thank you for all that you do for our community and for educating and advocating on behalf of the Transportation Penny.

Sincerely,

Lee Bussell and Mike Brenan

Click here for photos from Penny Sales Forum held Oct. 23, 2012.

Building knowledge economy requires local networking

By C. Grant Jackson
Senior Vice President/Community Development
Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce

You have to connect a lot of dots to create a knowledge economy.

In Columbia, those dots include a host of individuals and organizations that have been working, many of them for years, to build an economy that is driven by research and innovation and that creates high-growth, high-wage industries.

One of those dots is IT-oLogy, the organization birthed out of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina’s realization that the company needed to build its information technology talent pool.

But, BlueCross decided not just to focus on solving its own problem, but rather to address it across the Southeast. Collaborating with the University of South Carolina and IBM, the partners created the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management, later rebranded IT-oLogy. The non-profit collaboration now includes more than 30 college and university partners, and a multiplicity of corporate and other partners “dedicated to growing the IT talent pipeline, fostering economic development and advancing the IT profession.”

At last month’s Palmetto Pillar Awards, an annual celebration of technology companies and technologists by the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce’s Information Technology Council, IT-oLogy received the first annual Palmetto Pillar Award of Excellence.

The honoree is chosen by the ITC Advisory Council. The award recognizes “a company or individual that is going above and beyond to improve the IT culture and understanding in Famously Hot Columbia, S.C.”

The chamber’s ITC, a membership-based advocacy IT organization, works “to create awareness, to provide professional development and networking opportunities and to recognize the achievement of those in the IT community.”

In his acceptance remarks, IT-oLogy Executive Director Lonnie Emard paid homage to the collaboration that is going on in Columbia. He noted that the knowledge economy has really gained a foothold in the region thanks to the collaborative work of organizations like IT-oLogy, the ITC, iTsSC and others. A few years ago, that could not have been said. We are working together to build a pipeline of IT talent and companies.

A look at two other Palmetto Pillar  recipients is a lesson in how the dots leading to the knowledge economy are being connected in the region.

Terry Floyd, managing partner and founder of TM Floyd, received the Palmetto Pillar Leadership in Technology award. TM Floyd is an information technology consulting group focused on healthcare and property and casualty insurance. Started in 1976, TM Floyd has been successful for three decades, but more importantly Terry Floyd has been an advocate for the insurance IT business. iTsSC, Columbia’s Insurance Services and Technology Cluster, can trace its origin to work Floyd headed to create the Columbia Insurance Services Consortium.

iTsSC now represents 10 private companies and five public partners in a collaborative endeavor to grow the industry and promote Columbia as a premier location for insurance technology and services. Insurance technology and services has a nearly $6.7 billion total annual economic impact in the state. The Columbia region employs about 15,000 insurance technology and services professionals at an average annual salary of $62,000.

iTsSC is a New Carolina cluster managed by EngenuitySC. The public/private partnership is another major dot in efforts to develop and grow the region’s knowledge-based economy. Engenuity works to create an “environment where entrepreneurship, innovation and the creation of knowledge are fundamental elements of the Midstate’s culture, identity and economic development strategy.”

On the other end of the spectrum from TM Floyd , 52Apps won the Palmetto Pillar for “Start-Up Venture.” Launched in June of this year, 52Apps, which aims to create a new application for the iPhone or iPad every week, is housed in the USC-Columbia Technology Incubator.

52Apps was started by Brendan Lee and Chris Thibault when they were students at the University of Central Arkansas. Lee is now a computer science student at USC and Thibault, now a Columbia resident, is completing work online for a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith.

“What they are doing is very cool,” Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneurship and public-policy lecturer at Stanford, Duke and Emory universities, told Bloomberg.com. “The startup scene in South Carolina is very small, but there are sparks of light, and this is one of them.”

The company and the whiz kids who created it landed in Columbia because of another dot: the incubator and its resources, such as entrepreneur in residence Bill Kirkland and connections to USC — especially the College of Engineering and Computing.

Through the effort of organizations like IT-oLogy, the Information Technology Council, iTsSC, the University of South Carolina, the USC-Columbia Technology Incubator and a host of other groups and individuals who are willing to work together collaboratively, we are connecting the dots to the creation of a knowledge economy in the Columbia region.

C. Grant Jackson is senior vice president/community development of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached at (803) 733-2513 or at gjackson@columbiachamber.com.

Nuclear renaissance blooming in S.C.

By C. Grant Jackson
Senior Vice President/Community Development
Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce

The 2nd annual Small Modular Reactor Conference held last month in Columbia clearly added to central South Carolina’s evolution as the center of the nuclear power renaissance.

Nearly 300 global nuclear power executives gathered for the meeting. Small modular reactors are defined as those with an output of less than 300 megawatts. They can be manufactured at a plant and shipped to a site fully constructed. They are expected to be the next generation of nuclear energy power.

Two announcements, one a week before the conference and one the day of, make Columbia and central South Carolina the focus for small modular reactors.

NuScale Power LLC of Portland, Ore., said on April 11 it would partner with NuHub, the region’s nuclear collaborative, to recruit the nation’s first small modular nuclear reactor models to South Carolina.

“One of the key initiatives of NuHub is to support the manufacturing and deployment of SMRs domestically to meet demand for clean energy nationally and abroad,” said Ted Speth, chair of NuHub’s SMR Committee and managing shareholder at Ogletree Deakins’ in Columbia. “NuHub was impressed with NuScale’s dedication to investing in the growth and prosperity of the Midstate of South Carolina.”

NuHub, an initiative of EngenuitySC, comprises public, private, higher education and workforce development stakeholders working to maximize economic and job opportunities for the nuclear industry in central South Carolina, and to make the region a global leader for nuclear innovation. NuHub is co-chaired by Steve Byrne, COO and executive vice president for generation and transmission at SCE&G, and Sonny White, president of Midlands Technical College. The website is http://www.NuHubSC.com.

Then the first morning of the SMR conference, Speth announced another partnership, this time between NuHub and SMR developer Holtec International, a diversified energy technology company headquartered in Florida.

Both partnerships will compete for one of two federal grants from the Department of Energy for small modular reactor development. The recently announced federal funding opportunity, totaling up to $452 million, will support engineering, design certification and licensing for up to two prototype SMR designs.

NuScale and Holtec propose locating their SMRs at the Savannah River Site in Aiken and both have indicated that manufacturing operations would be located in central South Carolina.

“We are pleased to partner with NuHub to help incubate the SMR technology in South Carolina,” said Pierre Oneid, president of Holtec’s SMR subsidiary. “The coalition of industry, academic and community leadership represented by NuHub and the strongly supportive nuclear culture in the Palmetto State presents an ideal opportunity for us to build our first SMR-160 at the Savannah River Site. With help from NuHub and the state we hope to establish a local manufacturing facility for building reactor components in South Carolina that replicates our existing fabrication capabilities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Florida.”

Michael McGough, NuScale’s vice president of business development, said, “We at NuScale are excited and enthusiastic at the tremendous opportunity that lies before NuHub and NuScale to develop a powerful economic growth engine with world-class excellence and worldwide reach. We believe our programs will generate superior economic returns to the state of South Carolina, particularly in the Midstate region. “

In addition to NuScale and Holtec, SRS has signed an agreement with SMR developer Hyperion Power Generation to build an advanced reactor on the site.

Westinghouse, also looking to build a prototype, had sought to partner with NuHub, but was unable to reach agreement. Westinghouse partnered with Ameren Missouri, a gas and electric utility. When it announced the deal, although the news was public, Westinghouse seemed the odd man out, not to be in the SMR business in South Carolina.

But the nuclear renaissance is not just about SMRs.

NuHub is also focusing efforts on making the region a global leader in nuclear training.  That message is clearly getting out. One of those who came by the NuHub booth at last month’s conference was John H. Levan, president and CEO of the United States – Vietnam Foundation. Prof. Levan was seeking information on Midlands Technical College’s nuclear education and training program.

In addition to having an outstanding  nuclear operator training program up and running, Midlands Tech is a partner in a $3.12 million National Science Foundation grant to create a Regional Center for Nuclear Education and Training, RCNET, linking seven Southeastern states.

Graduates of MTC’s nuclear operator program are being snapped up by utilities and are likely to be in higher demand as SCE&G builds and operates two new reactor units at the V.C. Summer  Nuclear Power Station in Jenkinsville.

In the next 15 years, $40 billion will be invested in nuclear power generation to be deployed within a 100 mile radius of Columbia. That’s a renaissance.

 

Midlands Tech program to help cluster

Published in the April 2, 2012 edition of the
Columbia Regional Business Report

By C. Grant Jackson
Senior Vice President/Community Development
Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce

Midlands Technical College‘s announcement last month of a $5 million training grant from the U.S. Department of Labor was a win for Columbia’s insurance technology and services cluster.

The insurance technology and services cluster is a huge economic engine for the region. A study released last week by iTs|SC, the regional cluster organization, found that insurance technology and services has a $6.7 billion total annual economic impact in South Carolina. That represents 2.5% of the Gross State Product.

Most of that industry’s workers, about 15,000, are employed at firms in the Columbia cluster at an average salary of $62,000. The cluster’s total annual sales are $4.9 billion.

The study was conducted through Business in Motion, a joint project of the Navigating from Good to Great Foundation and the City of Columbia. The results were reviewed and estimates and data were validated by Joseph Von Nessen, research economist at USC’s Darla Moore School of Business.

The study, the first attempt to quantify the regional industry, delivered findings that bode well for continued growth of the industry. Of the companies surveyed:

• 70% plan to expand locally in the next 12-18 months
• 100% are expecting sales to grow over the next 12 months
• 55% said they expect to increase their workforce in the next 18 months and 45% said they would at least maintain current levels.

But amid the positive news, one big concern remains: workforce. Almost 50% of the companies indicated issues with recruiting and maintaining employees.

“Lack of access to skilled talent is creating both a short-term and a long-term challenge for continued growth,” the study concluded. The full study is available at www.its-sc.com.

Concern over workforce was one issue that brought Columbia’s insurance technology and services businesses to the table to begin forming a cluster in 2007 that would eventually call itself iTs|SC.

The businesses saw a need to widen and deepen the pool of available insurance technology talent. But grappling with an issue like workforce is not something businesses can do very effectively on their own; they need partners, like educators, who are in the workforce development business.

One of the hallmarks of cluster theory is that clusters don’t include just the businesses in a particular business space. California’s wine cluster for example isn’t just the growers and the vineyards and the wineries.

Likewise iTs|SC is not just companies like BlueCross BlueShield of S.C., Seibels Bruce Group, Colonial, TM Floyd and Duck Creek/Accenture. Clusters include ancillary groups like educational, research and trade organizations and in some cases even government agencies.

So when the cluster began talking about workforce, Midlands Tech, as well as USC, was already at the table.

When IT-oLogy was formed, originally the Consortium for Enterprise Systems Management, it took a seat at the table as well.

Each of those organizations is a key member of the cluster in helping deal with workforce issues.

When Midlands Tech had the opportunity to apply for the Growing Resources for Information Technology, or GRIT, program through the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, it already knew some of the direction it would need to take.

Cluster members had continued to hammer the need for new workers, especially in areas like Java programming, and Midlands Tech had been looking for an opportunity to help provide those workers.

Members of iTs|SC provided Midlands Tech information and helped shape the successful grant application.

Midlands Tech was one of only 43 awardees for the GRIT grant and the $5 million was the maximum amount awarded to any school.

The program is designed to build a training infrastructure for high-growth, high-demand information technology occupations – programmer analysts, computer network support specialists and network and data communication analysts – for unemployed veterans, minorities, women and others.

“Our regional partners in the insurance and health care industries continue to have difficulty finding qualified candidates to fill these important positions,” said Cathy Pitts, executive director of programs, MTC corporate and continuing education division, at the time of the grant award.

Helping train a wider and deeper pool of talent for the insurance technology and services cluster will help keep and grow the existing businesses in the cluster. It will also help the region draw more insurance technology and services companies.

C. Grant Jackson can be contacted at (803) 733-2513 or at gjackson@columbiachamber.com.